Five Days of Diving in South Florida
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Johnoly
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So you are coming to West Palm right about the PEAK of mating season. This is when all the 500 pound Goliaths gather together in a tight spot to mate. The GG's travel from hundreds and thousands of miles to come here each year. When you dive on a 'known' spawning/gathering site, it is just a jaw-dropping-incredible experience to see 50-100 fish the size of a volkswagen beetle huddled all together. If one of them ventures out into the open, s/he is covered in a 1000 silverside bait fish following. This now brings in the 'dive-bombing' attacking yellow tail jacks trying to eat the bait. And then the GG's makes a BOOM sound that's like a concussion and really loud. It is organized CHAOS !! and oohhh so cool to watch. My pictures don't do it justice cause I suck at photos, but plenty of others have some lifetime shots here. And type it in Youtube and you'll see what it's about.Can you find the Goliath groupers in the Keys? Now I'm quite interested in that.
Are there GG's in the keys??? One, maybe 2 at a time, but not a parking lot full of them. That's the cool part, you never forget it when you see it.
500 PSI
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Go to the Jupiter Dive Shop or Jupiter Divers to see best of the Goliath grouping. Skip WPB and after the Groupers head due south to KL More time in keys the better.
sportxlh
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I'll amend my earlier comment, if you want to see the GG's you'll want to spend a day or two in Jupiter, WPB or Boynton. I've never seen more than 3 or 4 on a Keys site. Like Johnoly said, you can see dozens and dozens on one site, in very close proximity to each other, if you hit the right week or two.
PoolsOpen
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+1 on WPB or Jupiter for GGs.. When booking, request GGs dives since they gather on the wrecks, and charters may not be going to the wrecks every day...
You cannot go wrong with:
Jupiter Dive Center in Jupiter
Narcosis in WPB
You cannot go wrong with:
Jupiter Dive Center in Jupiter
Narcosis in WPB
tarponchik
Contributor
You can only dive BHB at high tide, so be underwater 30 min before given high tide time. So if you dive BHB, plan your day accordingly. On weekends, it is so packed it's a madhouse, so I we do not even try BHB on weekends anymore. On weekdays we typically dive Dania in the morning, BHB in the evening, or vice versa, depending on tide schedule.
OP
Alrighty, you all got me so excited about the GGs that we are going down the preceding weekend (full
Moon!!) I’m going to be in FL anyways for work so hubby is going to meet me there, yay! Then we’ll just use our longer time for the Keys.
Booking the 3-tank GG dive with Jupiter on the 15th, and the afternoon dive on the 14th. Fingers crossed!!!
Moon!!) I’m going to be in FL anyways for work so hubby is going to meet me there, yay! Then we’ll just use our longer time for the Keys.
Booking the 3-tank GG dive with Jupiter on the 15th, and the afternoon dive on the 14th. Fingers crossed!!!
A lot of the dives out of west palm are drift dives. Very nice. Dives out of KL are more anchor at a reef. Might be better for the macro. Plan of day or two for GG and then to KL sounds great to me (and I like BHB)
There is a shore dive in KL at Canon beach. Done it a couple of times when boats blown out. Not awesome but beats a hotel room or a bar. Also there is a training spot called Jules in KL. Have done that a couple times also. Not a coral reef by a long shot, think of it as a quarry with quarry viz but with some ocean fish and critters circulating through.
There is a shore dive in KL at Canon beach. Done it a couple of times when boats blown out. Not awesome but beats a hotel room or a bar. Also there is a training spot called Jules in KL. Have done that a couple times also. Not a coral reef by a long shot, think of it as a quarry with quarry viz but with some ocean fish and critters circulating through.
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